THE SCREAMING WOMAN [1972]

 THIS ONE'S ODD. 

I've seen plenty of 70's made-for-TV horror movies in my time but this isn't like any of them.  Indeed, it's only tangentially horror in the climax of the film.  Olivia de Havilland stars as a rich woman named Laura Wynant who has just been released from a mental institution and has come back home to her extensive estate for a rest.  Awaiting her there are here rather-sniveling son Howard (Charles Robinson) and his rather-shrewish wife Caroline (Laraine Stephens) who both want her to sell off her land for the money.  On the property is the remains of a levelled smokehouse of which nothing remains but the basement which has been filled in with earth.  Laura hears a small, weak voice crying for help and, through a small hole, sees a woman buried alive.  Laura spends the rest of the movie trying to convince someone of what she's seen.  Meanwhile, a local man named Carl Nesbitt (Ed Nelson) has done his best to cover up that self-same spot where he has buried his wife. Apparently Laura suffers from arthritis in her hands which is why she can't dig up the woman herself.  

Now, I watched this on the new CREATURE FEATURES so it's very possible that some parts of the film were cut out.  However, there's a LOT that appears too convenient or just plain doesn't make sense.  First the title.  The only "screaming woman" in the film is Olivia de Havilland when she sees Mrs. Nesbitt through the hole in the ground; Mrs. Nesbitt herself barely speaks above a whisper when she utters a sound at all.  And conveniently, she never utters a sound when anyone else is around except once when a little boy is with Laura and that just scares him away.  Then there's the burial itself.  As depicted in the movie, Mrs. Nesbitt can't be down more than a foot.  She is not an old lady so she should be able to work her way easily up to the surface.  Later, it is obliquely shown that the Nesbitts had an argument and there is blood on the hearth of the fireplace; implying that Mrs. Nesbitt fell and hit her head.  If the blow didn't kill her (as it obviously didn't) in what way could it incapacitate her to such a degree that she can't yell and scream or even push her way out of a foot of loose dirt with an already established hole in it?!?!?!  And that hole Laura saw her through; after that, Mr. Nesbitt comes along and brushes some dirt over the hole to cover it up.  And that's all.  And no one is able to find the hole again although Laura, her son AND a police deputy all "look" for it.  It's kinda a LOT for a viewer to swallow but if you allow yourself to go along with it, it's a fine enough time-waster (especially if you watch it on CREATURE FEATURES with Vincent, Tangella and Livingstone along for the ride).  Small roles for Hollywood leading men Joseph Cotten and Walter Pidgeon as the family lawyer and doctor respectively pep things up as well.  It's also startling to find John Williams in the credits for the music and Edith Head for costumes!  Director Jack Smight has done some films I quite like (HARPER, FRANKENSTEIN: THE TRUE STORY, AIRPORT '75) and some clunkers (MIDWAY, the 1973 remake of DOUBLE INDEMNITY) but here he does the best job he can with a rather thin and incredulous screenplay which features most of it's running time with Olivia de Havilland frantically running around.  For what he's got to work with, Smight does an admirable job.